City park eyed for bike rack location

City park eyed for bike rack location

September 26, 2013|Michael W. Freeman, Winter Park Forum Editor

WINTER PARK —

The Winter Park Pedestrian & Bicycle Advisory Board is looking for a location in Central Park to put up a permanent set of new bike racks.So far, the advisory board members noted, it’s been suggested that a possible location is on the south side of the popular park, close to where the new SunRail train station is being built off Morse Boulevard..The park is already a popular spot for people who ride bicycles, since there are a few racks scattered across the grassy field. But the advisory board, which held its most recent meeting on Sept. 10 at City Hall, hopes to do even better by establishing a permanent location for a bike valet stop.The Pedestrian & Bicycle Advisory Board, created to find ways to promote a viable and safe pedestrian and bicycle-friendly infrastructure in the city and to promote alternative means of transportation, has been given the task by the mayor and Winter Park City Commission of making the city more friendly to those who ride bicycles as their primary means of getting around.Their efforts come at a time when the Park Avenue shopping district has become 100 percent occupied, with all available storefronts filled, and street parking there is becoming more of a challenge for those traveling downtown.Lindsay Hayes, Winter Park’s senior planner and liaison to the advisory board, pointed out that another potential factor might encourage even more people to try using bicycles.“If gas prices keep going up,” Hayes said, “people will rediscover the benefits of riding a bicycle.”Dori Stone, director of Winter Park’s Economic Development/Community Redevelopment Agency, which is working to revitalize the city’s major commercial corridors, said they are already experiencing that trend.“We are seeing bike traffic pick up in the city,” Stone said during a recent meeting of the Winter Park Economic Development Advisory Board, which is studying five major commercial corridors in the city, in the hopes of encouraging more business growth there.